Honeywell Expands Navitas Software Suite to Enhance Airport Operations

Honeywell launched the next generation of its Honeywell NAVITAS software suite platform, a System of Systems (SoS) offering that will help airport operators and air navigation service providers make more informed and accurate decisions across airside operations – from approach to gate. The latest updates enable automation and digitization of air traffic services to help achieve efficient ground movement, improve situational awareness, control and monitoring of airside and air traffic management (ATM) equipment, information management and integration. The latest software suite platform was unveiled at the 2021 Dubai Airshow.

Honeywell NAVITAS is a collection of task-oriented systems that enables airports to more seamlessly digitize, visualize and automate everyday operations such as orchestrating an aircraft’s final approach, landing, taxi-in for arrivals, turnaround, pushback, taxi-out, line-up and take-off for departures.

Honeywell NAVITAS is designed to meet the challenging requirements of modern aviation with the latest technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data, cybersecurity and leveraging human centered design principles. The SoS offering is comprised of nine “managers,” or dedicated systems, available within the full suite, including:

●     Engineering Manager: Provides the airport or air traffic engineering team with a more comprehensive insight to communication aids, navigational aids, visual aids and weather aids.

●      Surface Manager: Provides airport safety support, routing and guidance services for air traffic control (ATC) to help safely manage clearance services to aircraft and vehicles, and expedite and maintain an orderly flow of traffic even during low visibility conditions.

●      Surveillance Manager: Provides identification and accurate position information of aircraft, vehicles and unauthorized targets on airport surfaces and in approach.

●      Lights Manager: Provides a more comfortable working environment for tower controllers and airfield technicians through a computerized control and monitoring system for airport lighting equipment, which is a distributed and scalable system that stands out due to its high-speed operation, redundancy, and easier integration with further subsystems.

●      Tower Manager: An Integrated Tower Working Position (ITWP) that incorporates unique elements, like strip-less ATC workflow automation tool, electronic flight strip, ground situation display, air situation display, airfield ground lighting and voice communication system, and all others in a single display.

●      Performance Manager: Creates a repository of all operational information of airport surfaces covering data originating from multiple sources, to show metering and performance metrics of different areas like runways, taxiways, aprons and gates. Provides real-time dashboard supporting Airport Collaborative Decision-Making (A-CDM).

●      Turnaround Manager: Delivers higher gate efficiency and optimized throughput to support smoother operation of arrivals and departures at gates through an automated gate management system.

●      Arrival/Departure Manager: Facilitates more efficient sequencing and times to promote smooth traffic flow, both arrivals and departures.

●      Integration Manager: Receives and transmits data over multiple interfaces through an air traffic management (ATM)-grade integration engine while prioritizing, merging and recording data in a reliable data storage sub-system to help enable system wide information management.

“The Honeywell NAVITAS suite helps create more resilient, agile and efficient airports,” said Philipose Jacob, general manager, Global Airports, Honeywell Building Technologies. “Creating the airport of the future requires a strong operational backbone that prioritizes safety, experience and efficiency to adapt to the daily needs of travelers and employees. The upgrades to the Honeywell NAVITAS software suite support airport operations and help drive decreased operational expenses, all while promoting a higher level of safety, security and uptime and an improved experience for travelers and employees.”

South Korea’s Incheon International Airport, one of the highest-trafficked hub airports in Asia, commenced an end-to-end Honeywell NAVITAS Platform as an Integrated System, which has helped the airport significantly enhance air traffic management efficiency. Incheon International Airport also implemented 24-hour "follow the greens," which helped the airport to improve situational awareness with precision and consistency across airfield, increased the level of conflict detection and resolution, as well as generated meaningful reductions in energy consumption, CO2 and lamp replacement cost for the Aerodrome.

“By unifying air and ground traffic control, airport operations and maintenance with predictive performance analysis, Honeywell has provided Incheon International Airport a true, end-to-end airport management platform,” said Chang-Jun Lee, director, Aeronautical Ground Light Team, Incheon International Airport. “Over the past 20 years, we’ve worked with Honeywell to improve our operations and experiences to be one of the world’s most critical travel hubs. We plan the schedule to expand Honeywell NAVITAS by validating it, which allows us to continue to provide our travelers with an unmatched experience while supporting our employees with improved technologies.”